ABSTRACT
Based on the scholarship of a global team of diverse authors, this wide-ranging handbook surveys the history and current status of pro-women thought and activism over millennia.
The book traces the complex history of feminism across the globe, presenting its many identities, its heated debates, its racism, discussion of religious belief and values, commitment to social change, and the struggles of women around the world for gender justice. Authors approach past understandings and today’s evolving sense of what feminism or womanism or gender justice are from multiple viewpoints. These perspectives are geographical to highlight commonalities and differences from region to region or nation to nation; they are also chronological suggesting change or continuity from the ancient world to our digital age. Across five parts, authors delve into topics such as colonialism, empire, the arts, labor activism, family, and displacement as the means to take the pulse of feminism from specific vantage points highlighting that there is no single feminist story but rather multiple portraits of a broad cast of activists and thinkers.
Comprehensive and properly global, this is the ideal volume for students and scholars of women’s and gender history, women’s studies, social history, political movements and feminism.
Part 1: Feminism, What Is It? 1. Definitions: An Overview 2. Foundations, Elements, Roots 3. Varieties of Feminist Activism 4. Feminism as Global Endeavor Part 2: Historical Perspectives 5. The Pre-modern World 6. The Early Modern World 7. The Nineteenth Century 8. The Twentieth Century 9. The Digital Age and Beyond Part 3: Regional Thought and Activism 10. The Pacific 11. East Asia 12. Southeast Asia 13. South Asia 14. Middle East and North Africa 15. Sub-Saharan Africa: Religion 16. Sub-Saharan Africa: Rights 17. Europe and Russia 18. Latin America and the Caribbean 19. North America Part 4: Topics in Feminism I: Politics and Society 20. Political Life and the Law 21. Empire and Colonialism 22. Decolonization 23. Nation and Nationalism 24. Socialism 25. Democracy 26. Thoughts: Disability 27. Revolution 28. War, Peace, and Security 29. Displacement Part 5: Topics in Feminism II: Thought, Structures, Culture 30. Intersections, Struggles 31. Mana Wahine 32. The Arts 33. Thoughts: The Body and Sexuality 34. Religion 35. Race and Ethnicity 36. Family 37. Poverty, Work, and Labor 38. Technology 39. Thoughts: Ecofeminism and the Animal World
